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Monday, January 29, 2007

A week in my life Day 2

Get up, brekkie, family worship, Genesis 25 & prayer. Son leaves for school. Check blog & BBC News website. I later walk daughter to school & buy paper - The Independent. Give Sarah a lift to Penknap Chapel for our toddler group, The Good News Club. Get home and prepare for this evening's Know the Truth, a basic Christian Theology course that takes place once a month at our house. This evening I'll be speaking about the resurrection of Jesus. I know that Christ's resurrection does not usually figure much in the standard works of Systematic Theology - but it should! (See here).
After preparation for KtT, did some admin work & had lunch. Then off to West Lavingon to visit a member of the congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church who has just come out of hospital. I'm in the unusual position for an Evangelical Nonconformist in the UK of pastoring two neighbouring churches. I preach for two consecutive Sundays (am & pm) at Penknap Providence Church, then for one Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church. We alternate between venues for Wednesday Bible Study/Prayer Meetings. The joint-pastorate arrangement enables two small churches to pool their resources for gospel ministry. This arrangement had been in place for some years before I came along in 2003.
Get home after visit and read some more of Richard Gaffin's Resurrection and Redemption. I wish that I'd read this book before I did my thesis in the resurrection. How did I miss it? I came to broadly similar conclusions to RG on the significance of Jesus' resurrection, but his work is so full of helpful insights and stimulating exegesis. His interpretation of Romans 1: 3 & 4 is outstanding. Gaffin follows Gerhadus Vos, who questioned traditional reformed exegesis of these verse. He taught that Paul's flesh / Son of God with power contrast refers to the pre and post resurrection stages of Christ's incarnate life rather than his human and divine natures considered in the abstract (see here). What I hadn't realised until reading Gaffin is that George Smeaton got there first in his The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
At Know the Truth we considered the resurrection of Christ under three main headings:
I. The resurrection of Jesus as an historical event, II. What Jesus' resurrection meant for him (Son of God with power, Lord, Last Adam, resurrection & Trinity) & III. What Jesus' resurrection means for you (union with Christ, new life, justification, holiness, future resurrection hope). The meeting takes an interactive format with questions and discussion, followed by tea & biccies.
That's all for today.

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